Only 2GB of ram for new 8" bay-trail Win 8.1 tablets?

[wzis]

To use the tablets as a low power replacement for a laptop, I'm thinking they need 4GB of RAM. I find it odd that no mfr has used this as a means to differentiate from the pack yet. Seems like it would be a really simple thing to add, maybe as a $50 option ($30 of which would be profit).

Thing is, 2GB is fine for normal tablet stuff, but if that's what you want then get a iPad or Nexus 7 etc. This full blown Win 8.1 with 2GB doesn't fit.

Strongly agree! For a 64bit ATOM machine running full version of Windows, the fmr should put at least 4GB for laptop type of usage.

 

[s44]

Strongly agree! For a 64bit ATOM machine running full version of Windows, the fmr should put at least 4GB for laptop type of usage.

It's running 32-bit Windows, though.

FYI, the 64-bit models are due Q1 2014. Instant obsolescence is imminent!

 

[Raduque]

There is a horrible misunderstanding of Windows NT 6.x's use of RAM in this topic.

2 GB is far more than enough for the OS (be it Vista, 7, 8, or 8.1) to run on properly. Even 1 GB won't result in horrible performance. To those of you who say "but Windows 7 is using 2.5 GB and I'm not even doing anything!" - that's the prefetcher loading things into RAM. The more RAM you have, the more it attempts to store in RAM. This makes programs launch faster.

Every iteration of NT 6.x will actually run better on 512 MB of RAM than XP runs on 128 MB of RAM. The issue is that the prefetcher is pretty much disabled at that point.

I was trying to use an older laptop the past couple days with a Pentium M 2.26ghz CPU and 1gb ram on Windows Vista Ultimate. It was, in a word, unusable. I had Prefetch disabled, I had Aero disabled, I uninstalled everything except Chrome and mIRC, and on a fresh reboot svchost was using over 500mb ram on it's own, and 990/1024 mb of pysical ram was being used. The HDD literally would not stop accessing.


So, don't tell me Vista is fine on 1gb ram.

Edit: I should say that laptop had 3gb ram a couple years back and it was fine. I think I downgraded it to put the 2gb stick in my dad's laptop, that had 512mb.

 

[Torn Mind]

1GB of RAM and Windows 7 is absolute murder. Dealt with that config on a Toshiba NB505. Hell, it was a pain under Debian too if you have a browser with a ton of tabs open. 2 GBs is a MUST for 7. 8 might be lighter than 7, but it is still a lot like it.

 

[bearxor]

It performed extremely well for 2GB of RAM. I was not disappointed in the performance at all.

However, the main reason for not having 64-bit Windows on these devices are Microsoft's fault. Connected Standby will be in 64-bit 8.1 in a few months. Then you'll see these start shipping with x64.

 

[CottonRabbit]

Browsing multiple tabs and Office have been fine for me with 2gb ram. It's not noticeably slower than my Yoga with 8gb.

 

[scajjr2]

I have a Asus T100 (the 64gb model) and can tell you it runs just fine w/2gb ram. Browser, Office, streaming video, even games don't tax it much.
I read somewhere that the 4gb memory these will use is in very short supply and once production ramps up along with connected standby getting done, mid-2014 will see 4gb models being the norm.

Sam

 

[raven2048]

yes 4 gigs would be much better for ram cause first off beside the fact that the cpu dose support 4 gigs you don't even have 2 gigs of ram to use as you loose ram to the integrated video which sucks so if you need 2 gigs you have to give up graphics basically it's just that they are not smart to even make a 4 gig of ram version tablet for those of us who will pay for the extra ram

 

[IntelUser2000]

yes 4 gigs would be much better for ram cause first off beside the fact that the cpu dose support 4 gigs you don't even have 2 gigs of ram to use as you loose ram to the integrated video which sucks so if you need 2 gigs you have to give up graphics basically it's just that they are not smart to even make a 4 gig of ram version tablet for those of us who will pay for the extra ram

Not really. All, I mean ALL Tablets use integrated graphics and shared memory. They just have to do that.

It's quite hard to get even than 500MB video memory usage(thus system memory) on Bay Trail's performance. I doubt most games will be playable at that point. I mean, you are talking about Crysis at high settings here.

It'll probably use 300MB at most.